[00:00:00] Adam Walker: From Susan G Komen, this is Real Pink, A podcast exploring real stories, struggles, and triumphs related to breast cancer. We’re taking the conversation from the doctor’s office to your living room.
[00:00:17] Hi, Real Pink listeners. I’m joined today by Donna Wentz, and this is kind of an unusual episode in that I don’t think I’ve ever interviewed someone that I’ve known for as long as I’ve known Donna. So Donna, I was trying to, I was trying to figure this out. So you and my mom worked together for, how long was it that y’all worked together?
[00:00:37] Like very long? 20.
[00:00:38] Donna Wentz: I start, I started in ’92.
[00:00:42]
[00:00:42] Donna Wentz: And she was, yeah. Were you born?
[00:00:45] Adam Walker: When I was… I might have been 11 when you started, so I’ve known you since I was 11, I suppose. Yeah. So that is, that’s quite a long time. Yeah. So, yeah. Well, that’s good. Well, it’s so nice to see you and, you know, thank you for joining me on the show.
[00:01:00] I know obviously I know, I knew you went through breast cancer. Quite a long time ago, but I did not realize when we planned to do this recording. The day’s a special anniversary. So what is that?
[00:01:12] Donna Wentz: Today I am 10 years cancer free.
[00:01:15] Adam Walker: Oh, that’s amazing.
[00:01:17] Donna Wentz: It’s a huge milestone. Yeah. It’s one that you look at, you look for when you’re diagnosed.
[00:01:23] Adam Walker: Yeah. Wow. That’s a major thing. Wow. I, so, all right, so let’s go back quite a bit before that. Okay. Tell us about your kind of initial experience, like how did you figure out you needed to be tested? What was that like? What was your treatment like? Why, I mean, I know you were very young at the, you’re pretty young right now, so like, if you’ve been clear for 10 years, you know, it’s been quite a while.
[00:01:49] So like how young were you when it started, that sort of thing.
[00:01:52] Donna Wentz: So I was 39 when I was diagnosed. I actually found the lump on a self exam. I had not started regular mammograms yet because I had not reached the age of 40.
[00:02:06] Adam Walker: Right.
[00:02:07] Donna Wentz: I had a baseline mammogram when I was about 35 or 36. And so, you know, obviously it had been almost five years and I found one lump on a self exam.
[00:02:23] Adam Walker: Wow. All right. So you found a lump. You went to the doctor, was it, did you have any trouble getting it tested? I mean, I know a lot of women when they’re under that 40 threshold, they kind of struggle with that. Was that a problem or was it pretty straight, straightforward?
[00:02:36] Donna Wentz: No, not at all.
[00:02:38] I, the only place I knew to go was my gynecologist. Just they, I had, they had delivered my kids. So I knew that I could go there and get in quick. They knew me. So I called and I will say it took me a few days to make the call. Yeah. I kept think, you know, thinking, did it go away?
[00:03:02] Was I feeling, you know, what did I feel? Was it real? That kind of thing. Did not tell anybody about it. Went to the doctor, went to my gynecologist and didn’t tell her where it was or anything, and she found it. And she said right away breast surgeon just to get everything rolling. Yeah. Right, right.
[00:03:24] So, breast surgeon my… I mean, a mammogram I had one years before, but they started with that. Yep. You know, sort of the basics from the beginning because it was the beginning for me, not just cancer, but for doing the test to see if..
[00:03:46] Adam Walker: Yeah. All of those things. Yeah, exactly. All right. So what did your treatment look like?
[00:03:51] Donna Wentz: So treatment of course came after lots of tests, right. MRIs, biopsies. CT scans the whole gamut, blood work. And my first major event was double mastectomies. And it was about six weeks after my diagnosis. So it was very quick and that they actually wanted to move it up, but we, they…
[00:04:22] they kept it. They it was the first available. And so I had double mastectomies. And then after recovering from that for about six weeks, I started chemotherapy. And had, the Red Devil medicine that I’m pretty aware of.
[00:04:41] Adam Walker: Yeah. I’ve heard a lot about that one. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah,
[00:04:45] Donna Wentz: so did that for four treatments every three weeks.
[00:04:50] Adam Walker: Wow. Okay. And and so then, you know you get, get through all the treatment. And what at what point were you sort of cleared? What did that look like?
[00:05:01] Donna Wentz: So so it actually, I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to, it still keeps going. Yeah. After my four treatments of that, then you start sort of a maintenance, right, right.
[00:05:13] Maintenance drug. That was once a week I believe. And then. About four months later in June of that, of June after being, I was diagnosed in September. Surgery in October. Chemo started in December, finished in February. In June I started radiation. I had five days a week for six weeks.
[00:05:42] Radiation daily. Whoa. Holy smokes. That’s a lot of appointments. I mean telling, but that’s a lot of appointments.
[00:05:54] I’m telling you. I tell people that, you know. Cancer is tough, but the appointments are exhausting. I mean, you don’t know if you’re tired from the appointments or if you’re tired from the treatment.
[00:06:09] Adam Walker: Do you get to know like all the nurses on a first name basis at that point?
[00:06:13] Donna Wentz: Like, I’m still friends with a lot of them. I’m, I mean, that’s just who I am and I’m like, you know. If I’m gonna see you every day, we’re gonna talk about your kids. That’s right. Yeah. That’s right. That’s right. We’re gonna talk about family.
[00:06:25] They, I am still friends with a lot of my nurses. They meant the world to me. They you get to know them. You form relationships with them. Yeah, that’s right. I mean, especially, I mean, the chemo, you know, was every three weeks, but these people were every day. Right. Same time I even made friends with other patients because we were there at the same time.
[00:06:45] Yeah. Every day.
[00:06:46] Adam Walker: Yeah.
[00:06:47] Donna Wentz: So yeah, finished that you know, about for the whole summer, about that. Let’s see. Goodness. Had so I think I went, I was still going to the doctor every, all the time, but about every three months to get a shot that, that put me in menopause. Yeah. Because I wasn’t yet in menopause.
[00:07:13] They were putting me in menopause so that I could take the anti-estrogen Right. Drugs.
[00:07:20] Adam Walker: Right.
[00:07:20] Donna Wentz: So I was still going to the doctor every three months for that. And then the following year I finally was able to have the reconstruction surgery. I had what was called the deep flap. Where they used my stomach tissue, I had a tummy tuck.
[00:07:38] Right. Yep. They used that to build my new breast. And it was like a 12 hour surgery. It was, my family was, yeah. I didn’t know, obviously. Yeah. Right, right, right. Yeah. It just I know what, you know, they heard what they went through. Just waiting. I did a side note as the power went off during the surgery.
[00:08:01] Adam Walker: What? Oh my gosh, this is terrifying.
[00:08:03] Donna Wentz: So the rack generator turns on for the surgery, but my family, you know, is they’ve got the emergency lights and everything and I thought that was kind of funny. But yeah it was about 12 hours and Wow. So then I was in ICU for a couple of days. They have to transplant the blood vessels from
[00:08:22] the stomach to the breast because the tissue has to live. Right. So it was pretty neat when you think about it.
[00:08:31] Adam Walker: Right? Yeah.
[00:08:32] Donna Wentz: What they can do for us, because in the beginning one of the first appointments the breast surgeon made me make was with a plastic surgeon. And I said, I don’t want to see a plastic surgeon.
[00:08:47] Right. I’ve got cancer, you know? Right. Let’s do. And I later figured out and told him that my plastic surgeon, he became my best friend. You know, he made me, I, in the beginning, you just want the cancer out. Yeah. And a lot of women choose not to have plastic surgery, which is perfectly, you know, everybody has their own.
[00:09:07] I didn’t want it either. Right. But after talking to him and knowing what he could do to make me feel myself again truly was amazing. And he was just amazing. And he does he does plastic surgery for breast cancer patients. Yeah. So it’s it’s so different. It’s so emotional. It’s not because you want to have
[00:09:30] breast augmentation. You want, you know, you want to have larger breast or smaller breasts. It’s putting you back to making you feel who you were before.
[00:09:38] Adam Walker: Yeah, that’s right. That’s right.
[00:09:39] Donna Wentz: So, so in the beginning I was a little setback by that. But so I had my reconstructive surgery. I ended up having to have a, another one for some touchups.
[00:09:51] And I actually had they had to recreate the nipples. They tattooed they, they tattooed the color in it is just an amazing, yeah. It’s just amazing what they do for us. Yeah. To make us feel better and after going through something, you know. Yeah.
[00:10:15] Adam Walker: So that’s good.
[00:10:16] That’s good.
[00:10:17] Donna Wentz: So, so after that was when it sort of started dying down. Okay.
[00:10:21] Adam Walker: Okay.
[00:10:22] Donna Wentz: Leveling out a little, I was still going every three months for the shot. So we chose to have an oophorectomy which was removing my ovaries so that I didn’t have to have the shot every three months. Gotcha. Which puts you completely in menopause, so, right.
[00:10:42] So, yeah, then that, you know, then it started slowing down. I see the oncologist every six months. I was seeing the radiation oncologist every few months, then it went to every six months, then it went to yearly, and now I’m done with her. I still see my oncologist every six months. But that comes next June.
[00:11:06] Well probably be my last appointment with him for a while, and I’ve already had to prep myself for that.
[00:11:11] Adam Walker: Yeah, that’s great.
[00:11:12] Donna Wentz: That’s gonna need to refer me out for counseling because it’s such a they’re such a part of my life.
[00:11:20] Adam Walker: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:11:20] Donna Wentz: I mean, they were with me, you know, when I lost my dad, they were with me.
[00:11:23] When I lost my mom. They were, you know they were part of my life.
[00:11:26] Adam Walker: Yeah. So, well, s speaking of your parents, now, I know that family is a very important part of your life. Talk. Talk to me a little bit about what your support system looked like, you know, going through the diagnosis and the treatment, and then afterwards.
[00:11:42] Donna Wentz: I am thrilled that you asked that question because as the patient. You know we do worry about our health, but we also worry about those around us. You know, I can control myself, but they can’t control how. My mom, I mean, I’m still, I was still her child.
[00:12:06] Adam Walker: Yeah.
[00:12:06] Donna Wentz: I’m, I was 39, but her child had cancer.
[00:12:09] You know my dad’s daughter had cancer. For my brother, his sister had cancer. Yeah. For my husband, his wife had, and then my boys you know, their mom, they were 14 and 18. And I’m very close to them and telling the I was comfortable. I knew. I was gonna be okay.
[00:12:31] Adam Walker: Right?
[00:12:32] Donna Wentz: Yeah. I knew I said if I made it, if I lived I made it.
[00:12:38] And if I died, I knew where I was going. So I was gonna win either way. Right. But I wanted to live for my family. They were going through a lot. You know, I… seeing my children still had to go to school. You know you, they couldn’t stop going to school. My husband had to work. You know, my mother took me to most of my appointments.
[00:13:04] We made the best of it though. We, we literally, you know, she would sit with me, we got Chick-fil-A, we would sit for chemo for, you know, four hours and she was just the best. She would just sit there and she doesn’t, she wouldn’t bother me, but if I needed something, she was there to get it.
[00:13:21] Yeah. But it was just amazing. I, my, my work family, your mom, I remember coming to court that coming into the office that day, the day. The very day they told me I had cancer. I came to this office to tell these people because your mom, Judge Harrison, the people in my office are my family. They took it hard, but they started running you know, they, whatever I needed, they were there.
[00:13:55] Fundraising for me. They did a walk for me. They, you know, it was. The amount of support I got was out of this world. And I worried about them and I worried about how they felt. You know, I wanted them to know that I knew that I was gonna be okay.
[00:14:19] Adam Walker: Right? Yeah.
[00:14:20] Donna Wentz: But it was hard for them, and I had to learn that not everybody felt the same, was not as confident as I was.
[00:14:29] In my outcome.
[00:14:31] Adam Walker: Yeah.
[00:14:32] Donna Wentz: And like I said, even if I didn’t make it, I knew where I was going. I knew that I would be with my Heavenly father, but that not everybody sees that way.
[00:14:43] Adam Walker: Yeah.
[00:14:44] Donna Wentz: So that was hard. I had to kind of step out of my own shoes and feel some of their feelings to understand that it was their daughter, it was their friend, it was their sister, it was their mom, their wife.
[00:14:57] They had feelings.
[00:14:59] Adam Walker: Yeah.
[00:15:00] Donna Wentz: But, so every year, one year after my one year from today, the first anniversary. Okay. All right. I start, I know that was a b
[00:15:11] Adam Walker: Yeah. No, you’re good. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:15:13] Donna Wentz: I started I did a chili lunch for them because it’s, I, it’s usually cold and so I would make chili for everybody. And I’ve done it every year since that first anniversary.
[00:15:24] Of course, not during the pandemic. Right. Today would’ve been the chili lunch. Judge Harrison didn’t want me to have to do that, so she bought lunch from Olive Garden and had it brought in.
[00:15:37] Adam Walker: Oh, that’s great.
[00:15:39] Donna Wentz: I love that. Yeah, so we had our lunch today and I, I tell them every year I want to celebrate them because I was in and out of this office.
[00:15:47] They didn’t know when I was gonna be here or when I wasn’t. Right. Yeah. But they didn’t care. They took care of things. It didn’t matter if I came in crying or left, you know, whatever. They just took care of me. So I like for caretakers, you have to take care of them. They have a lot on them.
[00:16:06] Adam Walker: Yeah.
[00:16:07] Donna Wentz: And you know. It’s hard for them. And I realized that because I can control the way I feel, but I can’t control how they do. Right. So I wanted to treat them every year for the support that they’ve given me.
[00:16:21] Adam Walker: I love that. Now, you mentioned a walk and I think I’ve seen on Facebook that you’ve done that.
[00:16:28] Like tell me about what that experience has been like.
[00:16:31] Donna Wentz: Yeah, that was amazing. Jennifer King, who I always called her team manager because she bought shirts for everybody.
[00:16:41] Adam Walker: Oh, I love that. All right.
[00:16:42] Donna Wentz: Yeah. It was Team Donna from the beginning.
[00:16:44] Adam Walker: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:16:45] Donna Wentz: And she bought shirts and I made her one that had team manager on the back.
[00:16:50] Because her coping is, let’s just do things. Let’s fix things, let’s, you know, coordinate.
[00:16:57] Adam Walker: Right? Yeah.
[00:16:57] Donna Wentz: And she updated Facebook. She had newsletters about my journey. Like it was great.
[00:17:04] Adam Walker: Nice. I love it. I love it.
[00:17:06] Donna Wentz: So she, her husband worked at a golf course and she wanted to do a walk and we gathered out in Breman and there was food people had donated items that they, all the money went to us.
[00:17:22] That they had raised to help us with you know, being off work and that kind of thing. Yeah. And then we walked through the through the golf course and it was beautiful. It was a beautiful day. Everybody wore pink. My mom and dad were there, and my family, all of our friends. And it really just meant a lot, seeing so many people come together.
[00:17:46] For me and my family.
[00:17:48] Adam Walker: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:17:49] Donna Wentz: I don’t, it’s not that I wouldn’t expect it from them, but it’s Right. It’s hard when they’re there for you.
[00:17:55] Adam Walker: Yeah.
[00:17:55] Donna Wentz: But they just showed up and showed out and it was really beautiful.
[00:18:01] Adam Walker: So I’m curious, like, you know, obviously you got breast cancer at a young, you know, unusually young age.
[00:18:10] You’ve been through it. You beat it. You’re a decade out. Congratulations. Thank you. What, like, how do you feel your perspective has changed? Or like any like what lessons, like what takeaways did you have from that experience?
[00:18:27] Donna Wentz: So a lot. My faith has grown tremendously. I, there was a lot of time during tests
[00:18:41] Where you can’t move, you can’t do anything except breathe. And sometimes they were like, hold your breath. But all those times that I’m laying in tunnels and all that, I’m praying. Yeah. And I just spent a lot of time with God during that time. And I’ve, I feel like, you know.
[00:19:04] It was just one, it is just one of those things you don’t think is gonna happen to you. But it happened for a reason and Right. If it brings me closer to God, that’s great. I’m all, I’m thrilled. Also, I I decided that, not that I was, not taking care of myself, but I really turned a corner on that.
[00:19:27] Looking at the foods I was eating processed foods just what is in the food that we’re eating.
[00:19:36] Adam Walker: Yeah.
[00:19:36] Donna Wentz: I don’t know why I got cancer. It was estrogen positive. You know, so there’s a number of things they speculate. That it, you know, could be or could have been.
[00:19:50] Adam Walker: Right? But I’ve started taking better.
[00:19:52] Donna Wentz: Care of myself. I work out all every week.
[00:19:56] Adam Walker: Nice.
[00:19:57] Donna Wentz: You know, four to five times a week. I’m working out. I try to eat good. It’s not always easy, but, and you know, goodness gracious, it’s expensive, but yeah. You know, I, little bit, little changes can make a big difference. Yeah. I’ve started just paying attention to those things and it’s…
[00:20:19] I don’t know that I would’ve done that if I hadn’t have been diagnosed. But I realized that the stuff that’s in our foods is not always good for us.
[00:20:29] Adam Walker: Yeah. It’s good to be aware. That’s for sure. It’s good to be aware. Absolutely. Yeah. A little exercise, a little healthy eating.
[00:20:34] Never, it’s always good for, exactly. Yeah. That’s right. That’s right. Yeah.
[00:20:38] Donna Wentz: And it’s also my mental health too. Like it really helps me put things into perspective. A little bit of me time. That kind of thing. And yeah, and I really enjoy my, me time.
[00:20:51] Adam Walker: That’s good. That’s good. As you should, as you said.
[00:20:55] Well, I mean, Don, I appreciate you sharing your story. I celebrate your 10 years. It’s amazing. I’m so happy for you and your family. Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share with our listeners?
[00:21:08] Donna Wentz: You know, I, I I talk a lot. I could talk for hours on breast cancer and everything that goes with it.
[00:21:17] I’m always available for anybody who has a question. I try to talk to women and give them options of you know, things that came across my journey. But my biggest thing is to listen to yourself, your body. Yeah. And be your biggest advocate. Yep. You know, doctors are trained. we listen to our doctors and that’s great.
[00:21:46] We should, but if you think you know something be vigilant about it. Yeah, that’s right. Because it’s, you are in control of your healthcare and I just, I know a lot of women are scared to go to the doctor. But you know, be brave and go and just be your biggest advocate.
[00:22:05] Adam Walker: That’s right. You are your own best advocate.
[00:22:07] That’s always true. Well Donna, thank you so much. Tell your family hello for me and thank you for joining me today.
[00:22:14] Donna Wentz: Give your mom a big old hug from me and tell her I love her.
[00:22:17] Adam Walker: Will do.
[00:22:23] Thanks for listening to Real Pink, a weekly podcast by Susan G Komen. For more episodes, visit real pink.Komen.org. And for more on breast cancer, visit Komen.org. Make sure to check out at Susan G Komen on social media. I’m your host, Adam. You can find me on Twitter at AJ Walker or on my blog adam j walker.com.